The day Lily Evans went bonkers
by RoseScor90
Summary: Lily is having, like, the worst day in her life and who else but James Potter is there to help her! R&R!


Disclaimer: Not JK…

A/n: Written for the Fan Art Competition.

The prompt was .net/fs10/i/2006/085/e/5/SMACK_by_

"Argh!" a scream was heard through the length of a corridor on the fifth floor of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry followed by a clinking sound that sounded suspiciously like a vase breaking and a resounding crash of what could only have been a large bookshelf. A door slammed and the sound of further destruction was muted. It carried on for a few more minutes before all was silent.

An hour later, James Potter treaded carefully through the mess that had once been the cozy Heads commonroom. It was surprising that the normally immaculate room could so accurately resemble the Seventh year Gryffindor Boys' dorms. The door that lead to the Head Girl's dorm was closed shut so James knew Lily wouldn't be coming out anytime soon. His hand immediately moved to cover his cheek as he was reminded of the incident that morning.

He did not understand what she had been so mad about. He had just wanted to confirm patrol changes with her and then Padfoot had gone and made a smart-aleck remark that had made him laugh. Nothing out of the ordinary but Lily had gone completely bonkers and had stormed out of the hall, leaving him confused. May be he should have steered clear of her. But of course, when was he ever known for knowing when to quit? And his perseverance had only made her more furious and he had rightfully earned a slap on the face. But it had been her expression that had had him back tracking. As if she couldn't believe herself. As if she had been the one that had been slapped. Then she had run away, again.

He turned to move towards his dorm room when he heard a distinct gasp from the other side. His decision made, he climbed up the steps leading to Lily's dorms to face her unyielding door.

"Lily! Lily, are you in there?" James found it sort of silly to ask when he already knew she was there but when there was no answer from the other side, he knew this was going to be difficult. _As if anything relating to Lily Marie Evans could be called easy_.

"I know you're in there Lily. Please open the door, or I'll have to break in" he ended with a threat, though he had no intention of following through. If he had wanted to break and enter, he could have done so quite easily. Lily would have been in no position to put up unbreakable shields on the door.

There was a muted sound of shuffling and the door opened. James gasped at the sight that met him. Lily's face was drawn and tired, her eyes puffy red and swollen. Her usually straight hair was a mess, hanging about her shoulders haphazardly. Lily had never been one for the not-a-hair-out-of-place look, but he had never seen her this frazzled. Even her Gryffindor tie was loose and her cloak was thrown carelessly over an armchair. The tornado that had struck the commonroom had wreaked its havoc here too. Though most of these could be reparo-ed, it would be a back-breaking task. Lily moved out of the doorway to let him in, not looking back to see if he would follow. James looked around, trying to find a clutter-free place to sit.

"I think the bed's clear" Lily replied to the expression on his face, indicating the thankfully intact four poster. Her voice was raspy and clogged from the crying bout. James sat on the bed and Lily took her seat on the armchair which had her cloak draped over.

"I'm sorry" "What happened?" They remained silent and Lily indicated for him to continue.

"What happened here? Was there a break-in or something?" Lily looked around the room as if she was surveying it for the first time and the blush that arose on her cheeks told him all that he needed to know. There had been no one in here other than a livid Lily Evans.

"I wanted to conclude the patrol schedule changes today. Since we patrol every weekday anyway, I think we can let the prefects take a break on the weekends and do it ourselves" he tried to steer her from her depression and she readily kept up.

"Yes, I think it's a good idea. Is that what you came to me for in the morning?"

"Oh, yeah. I wanted to clear it up so that we can inform the prefects during lunch since tomorrow is a Saturday"

"Oh, okay then" Lily stared at the window behind him and it was apparent to James that she was trying very hard to keep her control. Before he could stem the thought, he found that his mouth had spoken up.

"What happened, Lily? Is something wrong? Family Troubles?"

"Nothing more than the usual" she answered non-chalantly.

"I dunno. It seemed like something had gone wrong in the morning. You aren't always that angry"

"Angry?" Lily let out a wry chuckle, "I was enraged as a humiliated Hippogriff"

"So something did go awry?"

"Not something, James, everything. Every damn thing went wrong today and what with the ever standing problem of my idiocy,…let's just say things compounded over"

"You wanna talk about it?" James asked, though he did not expect her to at all. When had he been her confidante? She seemed to be of the same idea and opened her mouth to say so but shut it just as soon. She seemed to be contemplating it and then let out a sigh.

"Might as well. Mary will be no good with this, since I know exactly what she'd say" she murmured to herself before she turned to face him.

"Well, you know we had an assignment to submit in Potions today, right?" James nodded. Part of being the Head Boy was that he had to turn in his homework in time, something he had never done in his previous six years.

"I had the conclusion to finish yesterday but with the meeting with the Headmaster, planning for the Christmas Ball, tutoring first years, double checking the arrangements for the Hogsmeade visit and all, it was almost two before I could even think about it. And then I was too tired to finish it, so I decided to finish it today morning"

"Am I leaving you with too much work, Lily? May be I could take up some more of the Head duties? I'm sorry I couldn't help you much yesterday. It was the full moon and…"

"I don't blame you, James. You're the last person I'd think of blaming. I sat by the window watching for Remus"

"It was a long night yesterday. But you needn't have waited for us. You know we can take care of ourselves"

"But I wanted to be there in case you or Black or Pettigrew needed assistance. I know you don't go to Madame Pompfrey. But you went straight to the Gryffindor commonroom so I thought it wasn't too bad and went to sleep"

"For an hour or two? Weren't you afraid that you'd oversleep?"

"I have an alarm. I placed a time-keeping charm on it so that it will work inside Hogwarts. And just my luck, the clock decided to shake off the charm today. Of course, it had been going a bit late often and I should have noticed but, I was diligent"

"You have a lot of responsibilities, Lily. You're allowed to have a slip once in a while"

"Not when I had a Potions homework to complete! And so, I was late by almost two hours and just in time to rush into classes"

"Didn't you take breakfast either?" He had seen that she had been missing at lunch, "No wonder you're this tired. Get up, Lily. It's too late for dinner so I'll take you to the kitchens. Come on" he stood up and reached for her hand. His eyebrows bunched in confusion at the moisture in her eyes.

"What is it Lily?"

"It's just, something silly. Noone's ever bothered about me this much. I am expected to be a strong, independent person. Someone who can take care of herself"

"That's rubbish. Everyone needs to be taken care of at some point of time"

"Thanks James. But going without food for a day isn't going to kill me"

"Why are you talking of dying now, Lily? That's just plain stupid. All you need is a bit of food and a good night's rest. Come on"

"You're acting like my mother, James" Lily said, and a smile finally broke out on his face, "But, if it makes you happy, I'll ask Minny to bring me something to eat later"

"Yeah, that does make me feel better. So, what happened next? Did you submit your essay without the conclusion?"

"I wish it had gone with such minimal damage. In my hurry, I had forgotten to cap the inkwell. Don't ask me how I forgot something as simple as that" she stated, seeing James' curious expression.

"So?"

"All my essays that were in the bag got smudged, along with my cloak" she indicated the one at the back.

"Couldn't you have siphoned it off?"

"I tried but the parchment still had an ugly blue tint and parts of the essays were soiled no matter what" she sighed, reliving those horrible memory.

"But one day's late submission isn't going to make much of a difference. And Slughorn seems to favor you so, where's the problem?"

"Don't you see? All my homework's gone and I need to start from scratch. A week's work, gone. And you wouldn't be speaking like this if you had seen Slughorn's disappointed face" her voice rose in volume as she vented out.

"And then…"

"There's more?" James asked, wondering how any day could get worse.

"I received a letter from my parents saying that my sister got engaged to some guy named Vernon who I vaguely remember seeing once and loathing at sight"

"You won't be seeing much of him since you don't get along with your sister very well, right?"

"Yes, if only she hadn't invited him to spend Christmas at our house to 'get to know' us"

"That's what put you in such a bad mood? No wonder"

"And then there was a letter from Petunia"

"That always puts you in a bad mood" James nodded. He had seen only too many times when her smiling face used to freeze over upon reading a letter from home.

"She doesn't want me there. Evidently, I don't belong under family any more"

"She isn't worth it. You're not going to be bothered by her much since you'll be graduating soon"

"Yes, that's the silver lining, I guess. And then Severus wanted to talk to me during lunch. We fought. Nothing out of the ordinary with that"

"Why that…how can you talk so calmly with him!"

"He chose what he chose, James. There's nothing we can do about it"

"But, you know what he has become. He pledged his soul to that _thing_!"

"How long can we hold a grudge? A year? Two? We need to work on something other than hatred and animosity, James. We are on the right side. He isn't. Let's leave it at that"

"I don't know how you can deal with this so well, Lily"

"What would you do if it was one of your friends? Black? Lupin? Or Pettigrew?"

"I'd want to…walk away, I guess. I could never hurt them"

"There's your answer" Silence reigned in the room for a minute before James gathered his wits.

"I guess you had one bad haired day. And Padfoot did not help much with his remarks" he smiled at her and only then did she notice how he flinched while doing so.

"It hurts, doesn't it? One second" she looked around for her wand and finding it under the dresser, walked to where he was sitting on the bed and muttered the spell to dispel the bruise and the marks.

"Thanks for that" James replied, feeling the sting reduce.

"I know how a slap throbs, James"

"How did you…Your sister?" Lily merely nodded, opting to sit beside him on the bed now.

"You're too noble for your own good, Lily" James shook his head in disbelief.

I'm not so good afterall. Look what I did in my anger" she said, indicating the mess.

"I'll help you with it. Let's just say you had a Petunia moment and leave it at that"

"But that's just it. I wanted to be better than her and where did that lead me?"

"Top student of Hogwarts, Prefect for two years, Head Girl. Not too bad at all, Miss Evans"

"You're just too optimistic James" Lily stood up and tried to make herself presentable. After a few minutes, "Will you come with me to the kitchens?"

"Sure"

As they walked down, the corridors, James asked, "So, why didn't you go to Mary? Or Alice? I'm sure they'd have been able to help you better than me"

Lily only shrugged but James thought he detected a blush on her cheeks. And he was very sure she muttered, "No need. I already took their advice"

A/n: Review!


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